RE: Pickled Wild Mushrooms (Chicken of the Woods)
@dber thank you! That's super kind of you! :) I could use all the help I can find to get some exposure on here. lol
That's awesome that you found such a nice big flush of L. sulphureus! HOWEVER, be mindful that it is typically illegal to pick/harvest anything from botanical gardens. If you decide to harvest those in the future from the same location I deeply encourage you to ask permission from the park superintendent....also make sure they haven't sprayed fungicide to try to eliminate it. Also, first time eating COTW then I highly recommended doing the boil and dump method just to make sure your tummy doesn't experience any issues. I'm not sensitive but my hubs is...I think it's like 12% of the population or something random like that is sensitive to it. We LOVE our mushrooms round here (both our cultivated varieties and wild!) Feel free to send me pics if you have questions about a species you are considering dining on. I'm always glad to share preparation methods too! Always just look (&admire) if you are questioning a species for edibility. When I was starting out I took species I thought were x, y or z to a mycologist friend at a university for positive identification even though I was confident I was so nervous! Still many species I can ID but have no desire to eat. COTW is not one of them though...those suckers are YUMMY!!!
You and I are gonna get along famously I predict!
So i know all about the potential COTW allergies - and in fact took great caution the one time I did ingest such a find for that reason from a tree in a state park. In general when I have ingested a new wild mushroom i try only a tiny amount, cooked and/or parboiled depending on the species, and then wait for 24hours to see what happens. I also keep the mushrom i ate around for upwards of a week refridgerated out of an excess of caution. (This is only when I am absolutely certain of an ID, through various sources - In the past the NYC mycological society members have been a great resource.)
Regarding the COTW allergy, I've heard some people say the effect may be related not only to individual reactions, but to type of tree the COTW was growing from. Specifically coniferous trees may be more lilely to cause upset.
My wife sometimes wants me to be a little more adventurous with my eating habits, seeing as there are a number of species I feel very confident about, but I've found the experience of even that first well prepared nibble bizarrely nerve wracking, and so I've just stopped altogether.
As for the legality of harvesting, I have heard tell that it may technically be a problem in a number of public places - and of course technically stealing if you take it without permission from private property. For my purposes it is usually not an issue, as I rarely take very much of any given mushroom, and I can say fairly certainly, nobody in the parks I visit rightly cares.
However, I will take your advice to heart should I be driven to harvest, say, that once in a lifetime perfect Lion's Mane or copse of fairy tale quality chanterelles in some state park someday.
I agree in that we will get along great!! Can't wait to see what kind of collaborations we come up with in the future. :-) I'm under the weather today (fall cold--ugh) so forgive my short response. Just checking in before retreating back to the comfort of my bed.